The Marauders and the Fetch of Hogwarts

The Marauders and the Fetch at Hogwarts
Part Eleven

Halloween started uneventfully, Remus reflected, but didn't end that way. First thing that was noted was that the Hufflepuff prefect, Rodney Darbyfeld, had been missing all day. Normally the other houses wouldn't have noticed this, but the Hufflepuffs were making such a big deal out of the disappearance that no one could help but notice. The second thing that happened was that at lunch the Gryffindor prefect Marky Perkins also disappeared while searching for Darbyfeld. He showed up two hours later, it was reported, in the infirmary, shaking like a leaf, pale as a sheet and insisting he saw his own ghost.

It was at that time that Remus decided it was time to do something constructive besides read books about death omens. Unfortunately, it either required leaving the school grounds or finding a partner. A girl partner. The only girl he was comfortable with was Lily Evans. Remus foresaw complications over this fact, especially with James. Since he didn't seem to have much of choice, Remus went ahead with his plan.

"Hey, Lily!" he called over James at breakfast Halloween morning. "Can I talk to you a moment after Charms?"

Lily gave him an odd look but shrugged. "Certainly," she said, almost primly, ignoring the giggles of her friends.

James immediately glared at Remus. "What are you going to ask her?" he demanded.

"Just some homework questions," soothed Remus. James looked unconvinced.

"Jealous?" teased Peter. Sirius roared with laughter at James' instant blush.

"'Course not, Peter," James mumbled. "Don't be a prat." Sirius continued to laugh, causing James to blush even more.

The day dragged and finally Flitwick's Charms class arrived. Flitwick had been trying for a week to teach the class various floating spells significantly more advanced than Wingardium Leviosa but thus far only Remus, Lily and Thomas Nott in Slytherin had managed to get anything higher than a foot off their desks. When the bell signifying the end of class rang Remus and Lily hung back for their meeting. Sirius and Peter had to drag James away.

"What did you need, Remus?" Lily asked bluntly, leaning a hip against one of the desks.

Remus swallowed, finally realizing what he was getting ready to ask this rather formidable girl. "Um, well, you see," stammered Remus.

"What are you four up too?" She had a suspicious look on her face.

"Four up -?" Remus repeated stupidly and then grinned. "Oh no, the fellows don't know anything about this. This is all me, Lily, honest." She only harrumphed. "Can you do something for me tonight? It's for a project I'm doing for Dumbledore, but part of my research...well, a girl has to do something, not a boy."

Lily arched an eyebrow. "A girl?" Remus nodded emphatically. "What do I have do? What research for Dumbledore?"

Remus thought quickly. He hadn't expected Lily to actually consider it. "Well, it's about omens and stuff, you know, portends and divinization? Anyway, on Halloween, I read that if a girl lights two candles by her mirror and stares into the mirror she'll see her future husband. I want to know if it's true."

Lily considered it. "Why me?" she wanted to know.

Remus shuffled his feet. "Well, you're the only girl I've ever really, you know...well, you won't giggle at me."

Lily giggled and Remus rolled his eyes. "Sorry," she said around another giggle. "It's just that you're so cute, Remus, asking me this. Hoping it's you, are you?"

"No!" he practically shouted, horrified at the mere idea and just imagining James' reaction if he'd overheard that comment. "I just want to know if that particular thing can really happen!"

Lily gave another giggle. "What time do I have to do this candle lighting thing?"

Remus frowned. "Time? I don't know. The book didn't say. Dark, I guess."

"Well that covers a lot of time," Lily replied mildly and Remus flushed. "Tell you what, meet me in the common room right before dinner and I'll do it before we go down for the Halloween feast. It should be late enough then."

Remus swallowed at her cat-ate-the-canary grin. "Um, sure, okay. That will work."

"It's a date then, Remus! Ta!" Lily waved at him as she exited the classroom.

James, Sirius and Peter immediately popped in after she left. It was obvious they'd been eavesdropping. "A date?" James practically snarled.

"It's not a date!" Remus assured his friend. "Girls are weird," he added as an afterthought. James snarled again, something unintelligible this time.

Sirius poked a thumb in James' direction. "He's got it bad and he's not even thirteen yet." Peter and Remus sniggered.

"What are you doing this for anyway, Remus," Peter asked curiously.

Remus chewed on his lip a moment and then shrugged fatalistically. "Well, if there's something mimicking omen-making creatures then maybe it'll fall for this trick. If nothing happens, then, well, back to the drawing board."

Sirius slapped Remus on the back jovially. "That's our braintrust, always thinking ahead!"

James only muttered, "You could have asked a different girl."

James was positively unreasonable the rest of the afternoon. He adamantly refused to speak to Remus at all and when Snape and his Slytherin cronies approached for some heckling James was downright cruel with a verbal tirade that sent them scurrying. Sirius merely gave James a long, thoughtful look before commenting, "You need a nap badly, my friend. Come, let us depart." He took James by the arm and dragged him off, leaving Peter and Remus to enjoy the unseasonably warm weather near the front steps of the castle.

After the two of them disappeared up to Gryffindor Tower, Remus and Peter idly played some card games until it grew too chilly to remain outdoors. There was already activity in the Great Hall. The two Gryffindors poked their heads in to see what the ruckus was to discover the hall decked out in orange and black crepe paper and skulls with candles inside the eye sockets floating around the room. Professors McGonagall, Slughorn, and Benbrook were gathered around a table at the far end of the hall. What they were doing, the two boys couldn't tell and when they attempted to enter for a closer look, a hand landed on each of their shoulders, scaring them to death.

"I wouldn't if I were you." Argus Filch, the caretaker of the castle, was looming over them with a decidedly evil grin on his face. "I've been looking for some chain rattlers, boys, feel like volunteering in dungeons tonight?"

"Uh, sorry," muttered Peter. "Got plans."

"I got Potions homework," Remus tacked on quickly and the two of the scurried off for Gryffindor Tower.

An hour before the Halloween feast, Remus met Lily in the common room. She still had the big smile on her face, now a bit more condescending. In lieu of a greeting she said, "I've been doing a bit of research, Remus, on this experiment of yours. I should light two candles, brush my hair and eat an apple while I'm in front of the mirror." She held up her hairbrush and an apple.

"Oh." Remus blinked. "Where'd you find that out?"

Lily gave him a sly glance. "A girl's got to have her own secrets, you know."

Remus shifted his weight from one foot to the other under Lily's green-eyed scrutiny. "Oh, okay." He had no idea what she was talking about but he was willing to try whatever it took to get the omen-maker to appear. "I'll wait here, shall I?" He gestured to one of the chairs by the fireplace and Lily nodded her head.

"You can wait outside our staircase, then escort me down to dinner." Remus nodded, not about to argue with her. He followed her upstairs, stopping as she took a different turn than the way the boys went to their rooms. "Wait there," she called to him as she opened the door labeled "2nd Year Gryffindor Girls". Remus nodded again. The door closed softly behind her and Remus settled down to wait.

"Psst!" Remus' head swung around to see James, Peter and Sirius at the foot of the main stairway.

"What?" Remus whispered.

"How long you think this'll take?" asked Sirius, waggling his eyebrows. Remus shrugged. Like he knew!

James scowled. "Well, come down as soon as you get done and report, okay, mate?" Remus suppressed a sigh and nodded his agreement. Peter only grinned at him and waved as the three boys disappeared from Remus' line of sight.

Remus wasn't sure how long he'd sat there in the drafty stairway, perhaps twenty or twenty-five minutes before the door to the room opened. Lily came out, pale and shaking. For a moment, Remus was afraid she might have been hurt or frightened. She stalked down the small flight of steps to where he waited. It was only when she opened her mouth did he realize she was outraged and embarrassed.

"Never again will I help you with an experiment, Remus Lupin!" she hissed at him. She grabbed his arm and drug him down the rest of the steps. He almost had to run to keep up. "That was the most humiliating, exasperating, outrageous -" She stopped and turned on him when they reached the bottom. "Did you four set this up? How did you set this up? I mean, of all the -"

Remus took her by the shoulders and gave her a shake. "It's not a joke, Lily!" he stated firmly. "What did you see?"

"Not what!" she practically shouted at him. "Who! Mr. James "I'm so bloody perfect" Potter!" She spat out the name almost hatefully.

Remus' mouth dropped open in stunned disbelief. "Um," he began, but Lily interrupted him with her continuing tirade.

"I mean, me and that puffed up, overblown, egotistical maniac?" Lily stomped her foot. "I swear to you right now, Remus, it will not happen! I don't care what some stupid old wives tale says will happen. I guarantee you it won't!"

"Okay, okay," placated Remus. "I believe you." He paused. "So you saw James in the mirror instead of yourself? It really worked?"

Lily sniffed disdainfully. "I lit the candles, sat down and brushed my hair with one hundred strokes. I faced the mirror and stared into it the whole time I was eating the apple." She paused and made a funny face. "My nostrils flare when I chew, did you know that? I eat funny." Remus could think of no response and apparently one wasn't required to that ludicrous comment. "Anyway, my reflection just kind of dissolved into this mist-looking thing and slowly formed into a ghost-like impression of James Potter. I was so astonished I dropped the apple. I bent down to pick it up and when I looked back in the mirror, it was just me again." She gave him a curious look. "So what do you think?"

Remus was thinking. Whatever the thing was that was mimicking death omens was also mimicking anything that predicted something too. Was it a prediction ghost or something? Was there such a thing?

"Well?" prodded Lily again, more impatiently.

"I don't honestly know," Remus confessed. "I mean, that's what was supposed to happen anyway."

Lily sniffed again and stuck her nose in the air. "Well, I think it's ridiculous and completely off-base. I will never marry anyone like James Potter."

With that declaration ringing firmly in his ears, Remus dutifully escorted Lily down to the Halloween feast as he'd promised. His mind was so full of what Lily had told him and trying to figure out what was going on that he completely missed James' angry look and the few sniggering and chortles from the Slytherin table as the two of them walked passed.